Preach Dec 24th 2006
Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 24th December 2006
What do you want for Christmas?
Several years ago a Washington D.C. television reporter was working on an assignment called “The Spirit of Christmas.” He telephoned the British Embassy and asked to speak to the British ambassador.
“Ambassador,” the reporter said, “you have been very kind to us through the year and we would like to include you in a special Christmas news segment we’re going to run. Tell me, what would you like for Christmas?”
The ambassador replied, “I am very touched by your offer, but I must decline to accept any gift.”
“Oh please,” said the reporter, “you really have been very helpful to us, so won’t you please tell me what you would especially like for Christmas?”
Again the ambassador refused, but the reporter persisted, and the ambassador finally gave in. “All right then, if you insist. This Christmas I would like a jar of mint jelly.”
Having forgotten about the conversation, the ambassador was surprised when several weeks later, on Christmas Eve, he turned on the evening news and heard the same reporter introducing a segment on “The Spirit of Christmas.”
"We recently interviewed three visiting ambassadors and asked them what they would like for Christmas. These three diplomats each gave revealing answers when they pondered what they would most like during this Christmas season of goodwill.
"The German ambassador said: “I would like to see a peaceful and prosperous decade ahead for the newly liberated German people, and all citizens of the planet. May God bless us all during this historic period of change.”
"The Swiss ambassador responded: “May the Spirit of Christmas last throughout the year. It is my dream that our world leaders will be guided toward a common goal of peaceful coexistence. This is my wish this Christmas season.”
And then we asked the British ambassador who said, “I would like a jar of mint jelly.”"
What do you want for Christmas?
I’m sure this guy felt rather foolish. To want mint jelly instead of something much more important! And yet, maybe this Christmas we could make this same mistake. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll all get presents carefully chosen and wrapped by people who love us. But if you could ask for anything, what would you really ask for this Christmas?
God wants to give us a gift that really matters. You won’t find it in Argos or in Dunnes. A gift that doesn’t come with a price tag measured in Euro – its more costly than that. It
comes wrapped, not in Christmas paper, but in strips of cloth. It comes in a person – Jesus! Let’s think about this gift of Jesus for a bit – I hope we’ll all agree that this is what we really need this Christmas!
1. God’s Presence in our Poverty – Immanuel
Lets read from Matthew’s gospel. “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Matthew 1v23
The first aspect of God’s Christmas gift is the gift of his presence. Jesus came as our Immanuel: God with us. As we heard in that song from Kevin just before communion: “Mary… did you know your baby boy has trod where angels trod?
When you kissed your little baby,
You kissed the face of God.”
What an amazing gift! The God of the universe. The creator and sustainer of this vast world came and lived as a human being on earth!
a) God came Near
Max Lucado writes in his book, “When God came Near”: "As moments go, [the moment of the incarnation] appeared no different than any other… But in reality, that particular moment was like none other. A spectacular thing occurred. God became a man. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb."
Christmas is that God came near. As John writes: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1v14
Because of Christmas the guesswork is over. No longer do we need to wonder what God is like. We don’t need to guess at God heart. We don’t need to speculate about what God thinks of us. John goes on: “No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” John 1v18. Jesus has shown us God’s heart, God’s character, God’s love for us, God’s commitment to us. Jesus is God with us. Immanuel.
b) Not a Flying visit!
And Jesus wants to come and be our Immanuel today! He wants to be God with us - today! The angels at that first Christmas, they came to people – but their’s was only ‘a flying visit’! They appeared. Gave their wonderful message, and then went.
Jesus came to stick around! He “made his dwelling among us.” John 1v14. And Jesus wants to come to stay in our lives! The final words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel are this: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28v20. Because of Christmas, we can have God’s presence forever. So that we’re never on our own!
c) In the poverty of our circumstances
But the most shocking thing is this: God didn’t come into this world with pomp and ceremony. This was no celebrity birth. He didn’t come to riches and luxury. But the Son of God chose to come into this world in desperate poverty. The poverty of a humble working-class family, that could only afford the poorest of offerings at his consecration (Luke 2v25, Leviticus 12v8)! The poverty of a borrowed feeding trough.
i) Immanuel to the poor and needy
If God had only come into the best of circumstances, then perhaps we might be afraid our lives are too messed up, too difficult, too poor for God to be present! But Jesus came as our Immanuel to the poor and needy. To those who had no hope other than God!
All through his life Jesus came to the poor and needy:
· He reached out and touched the man full of leprosy to be Immanuel to him.
· He spoke to the woman at Sychar’s well, the one whose life was a catalogue of failed relationships!
· He spent time with prostitutes. He was known as the friend of sinners!
Christmas says to us today, “It doesn’t matter how bad or messed up our circumstances are – Jesus wants to be Immanuel for us! He wants to get involved in our lives, in the mess, the difficulties, to go through the struggles with us!” If we have accepted the gift of Jesus, then all the issues we face in our life; the times when we think we can’t go on, that no-one understands. Jesus, our Immanuel, is with us.
Maybe we don’t feel him. Maybe we wonder why he doesn’t do things differently. But because of Christmas we know that God cares, that he understands, that he goes through it with us – because Jesus is our Immanuel: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8v38-39
d) In the poverty of our selfishness
But Jesus did not only come to the poverty of circumstances, but to the poverty of our selfishness:
· He came to a country under enemy occupation.
· He came to a land governed by a cruel and heartless King.
· He came to a nation whose religious leaders had lost their way. To a religious system that missed his coming: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” John 1v11 – had it not been for a bunch of shepherds and foreign star-gazers, nobody would have noticed his birth!
Jesus did not come to the world because we were rich in love and kindness and worship. He was God’s presence in a selfish and sinful world.
i) Immanuel to the rich and empty
All through his life Jesus came to people in their selfishness:
· He invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ house, the lonely tax collector – Immanuel, God with the criminal!
· He had dinner in Simon’s house – the cold and disrespectful Pharisee: Immanuel, God with the self-righteous.
· He had dinner with his disciples & washed their feet: Immanuel, God with the unfaithful.
· He even washed Judas’ feet, and gave him the tastiest part of the meal – Immanuel, God with the liar.
And Jesus is willing to be Immanuel to us, even in our selfishness. Even in the emptiness of our hearts. He won’t run from us once he really gets to know us. He won’t be shocked at what he finds in our lives.
He doesn’t want us to stay the same. His presences will change us. But the amazing thing is that Jesus wants to come near to us – as we are right now! Whatever our circumstances, whatever our character – God’s Christmas gift for us is Immanuel – his presence with us today.
2. God’s Power in our weakness – Christ the Lord
But God’s gift is not just his presence. It’s also his Power. “The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2v10-12
Jesus came as Christ, the Lord! He was the Christ, the anointed one, the one commissioned by God to be prophet, priest and king. God’s chosen deliverer who was to come.
He is the Lord, with all power and authority. He is, as the angel announced to Mary: “the Son of the Most High… and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 2v32 Later Jesus could say: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew 28v18 He comes to bring this power into our lives!
a) Power expressed in weakness in Jesus’ life
But who will the shepherds see when they go to the Lord of lords and King of kings? They’ll see a newborn baby. We pick up a newborn and we’re afraid that we’ll break it! We cradle it against this world! This baby will be wrapped in strips of cloth to protect him from the cold. And where will they find God’s anointed who has all authority and power? In a manger because he couldn’t even command a room in Bethlehem!
Jesus always displayed God’s power in weakness!
· The bread of life and the one who had the power to feed 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish was hungry in the desert.
· The one who could calm the storm on the lake chose not to still the cries of ridicule from the crowd one Friday morning.
· The one who could command angels to protect him, allowed heartless soldiers to rip to shreds the flesh on his back.
· The one who could instantly heal broken bodies with a touch allowed his hands to be nailed to a Roman cross.
“For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 13v4. The cross was a place of weakness. But it was also a place of Power! “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2v15
The cry from the cross – FINISHED – was a cry of Triumph! And the cross for us who have trusted in Jesus – is the power of God: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1v18
b) Power in Weakness in Our Lives
This baby born Christ the Lord offers the amazing power of God to us today! God wants us to experience “his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” Ephesians 1v19-20 The gift of Christmas brings the resurrection power of Jesus into our lives.
But sometimes we look around and ask – where is this power that the Bible speaks of? Why am I struggling so much? Why is life so tough?
Sometimes the answer is that God chooses to reveal his power in us in our weakness. His power does not come into our lives to take us out of the struggles of life. His power comes into our lives to take us through the struggle of life. Paul learned this when struggling with a painful issue in his life. The Lord answered his prayer, not by removing the problem, but by giving him power to go through it: “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12v9
If we accept the gift of Jesus, then we receive God’s power, not in some earthly way - with razzmatazz and a sailing through life – so that people will be astounded that we don’t struggle or suffer anymore. But we experience the power of Christ in our lives – so that people marvel at the power of God in such a weak vessel as you and me! “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Corinthians 4v7
His gift is that no matter what we go through, we never face a situation that we do not
have the ability to live through because we have Christ the Lord: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4v13
3. God’s Promise in our Pain – Saviour
But God’s gift to us is not only that he wants to be with us in our poverty, or to empower us in our weakness, he wants to rescue us from our pain!
On Sunday, December 22, 1996, Camell Taylor was working on a bridge over the Elizabeth River in Virginia. The road was icy, and a pickup truck slid out of control and hit Taylor, knocking him off the bridge. He fell into the cold waters of the river below. His pelvis and some of the bones in his face were broken.
Joseph J. Brisson, the captain of a barge passing by at that moment, saw Taylor fall and quickly had to make a life-or-death decision. He knew Taylor would drown before he and his crew could launch their small boat and reach him. The numbingly cold water and strong currents of the river could kill him if he dived in to rescue Taylor. He had a family, and Christmas was three days away.
Brisson decided to risk his life for a man he had never met. He dived into the river, swam to Taylor, and grabbed hold of him. "Don't worry, buddy," he said, "I got you." Brisson held Taylor's face above the water and encouraged him to keep talking. Then he took hold of a piece of wood in the water and slid it under Taylor to help keep him afloat. The current was too strong for them to swim to safety, and eventually the cold caused Brisson to lose his grip on Taylor. So Brisson wrapped his legs around the injured man's waist and held on.
After nearly thirty minutes the crew from the barge was finally able to reach the two men and pull them from the water into the small boat. Taylor was hospitalized for broken bones. Brisson, the hero, was treated for mild hypothermia.
Brisson said later he knew what he had to do when he saw the man fall. "I have a family," he said. "I thought about that. But I thought about how life is very important. I'm a Christian man, and I couldn't let anything happen to him."
Joseph Brisson shows the heart of Christmas, because Jesus came not only as Immanuel and Christ, the Lord but also as our Saviour! We already read this morning: “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you” Luke 2v11
As Kevin’s Song said:
“Mary did you know…
This child that you’ve delivered
Will soon deliver you.”
And to be our Saviour, Jesus had to leave the safety and purity of heaven and jump into our pain. Jesus had to come not only Bethlehem but also Calvary where he experienced the pain of our sin. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5v21 And so Christmas offers to us God’s promise in our pain.
a) The Promise is Forgiveness! – in the Pain of Guilt
First of all Jesus came to give us the promise of forgiveness – to save us from the pain of our guilt. In of ourselves we are of course guilty before God, each of us were “dead in your transgressions and sins.”
But Jesus came to rescue us and give to us full, free and instant forgiveness: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8v12 Everyone who has trusted in Jesus has been declared completely righteous in God’s sight. The promise is that our guilt has been removed. And so because of Christmas we’re never too far away to come back to God. There is always hope for anyone!
b) The Promise is Transformation - The Pain of Failure
But Jesus did not just come to remove the pain of guilt, but also our experience of failure. The constant pain of our slavery to sin and selfishness. Of not being able to be the person we want to be. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” 2 Corinthians 3v18 Because of Christmas we’re not condemned to experience the same failures year in year out. God has promised that he is changing us to make us more like Jesus.
c) The Promise of Heaven - The Pain of Death
This message is indeed a message of great joy for all people. But right now that joy is mingled with sadness. Because we still experience the pain of death – we’re still living in a dying world. But Jesus, our Saviour comes with a final promise – the promise of heaven – that one day he will remove us not only from the penalty and pollution of sin, but also from its very presence:
“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21v3-4
We have yet to experience the fullness of this salvation. In a sense we’re still opening the gift. But this gift comes with the promise that if we accept this child called Jesus into our lives today, then all these promises are ours, guaranteed! “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1v20
Conclusion
So “What do you want for Christmas?” Let’s not be like that ambassador – focussing on small things and missing out on the most important gift from God! Let’s accept the gift from God – the person of Jesus:
God’s Presence in our Poverty
God’s Power in our Weakness
God’s Promises in our Pain
Geoffrey T. Bull, missionary to Tibet, was cold, exhausted, and hungry. He had been imprisoned by Communists following their takeover of China in 1949, and his future was bleak. His captors drove him day and night across frozen mountains until he despaired of life. Late one afternoon, he staggered into a small village where he was given an upstairs room, swept clean and warmed by a small charcoal brazier.
After a meager supper, he was sent downstairs to feed the horses. It was very dark and very cold. He clambered down the notched tree trunk to find himself in pitch blackness. His boots squished in the manure and straw on the floor. The smell of animals was nauseating. Geoffrey, cold, weary, lonely, and ill, begin to feel sorry for himself.
“Then as I continued to grope my way in the darkness,” he later wrote, “it suddenly flashed into my mind. What’s today? I thought for a moment. In traveling, the days had become a little muddled in my mind. Suddenly it came to me. ‘It’s Christmas Eve.’ I stood suddenly still. To think that my Savior was born in a place like this. To think that He came all the way from heaven to some wretched eastern stable, and what is more to think that He came for me. How men beautify the cross and the crib, as if to hide the fact that at birth we resigned Him to the stench of beasts and at death exposed Him to the shame of rogues.
“I bowed to thankfulness and worship.”
The Gift!
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?" - Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Illustrations
“Born in an obscure village, he was the child of a peasant woman. Growing up in another out of the way and disdained village, he worked in a carpenter shop until he was about thirty. Then for three years, he was a preacher who both
talked and listened. He helped people whenever he could. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never had a family of his own or owned a home. He never traveled over 200 miles from the place
where he was born. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness and had no credentials but himself.
While he was still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through a mockery of a trial, after which he was executed along with two thieves. While he
was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he owned.
Only because a generous friend offered his own cemetery plot was there a place for him to be buried.
2,000 years have now come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. The leader of the column of spiritual progress. The ultimate example of love.
It is no exaggeration to say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the kings who have ever reigned, all the congresses that have ever convened, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this
Earth as that One Solitary Life.”
Previous years
EVE 2005
Be an Angel – Share God’s Love
Be a Shepherd – See a Saviour
Be a Wise Person – Go out of your way to meet Jesus
Family 2004
King Herod – rejected
Chief Priests – ignored
Magi – accepted
Day 2004
The Gift that God gave to us – Isaiah 9v6
2002 – Calvary
An advert you can believe in.
Luke 2v8-20
An outrageous claim
A fragile Plan
An insignificant audience
An experience not to be missed
A new advert – shepherds went to tell
2001
The gift God gave to us - Immanuel
The gift God wants from us – his love
The gift God wants us to give to each other – love
Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 2nd October 2005
God’s New People – Filled with God’s Spirit - Ephesians 5:15-21
Exegetical Outline
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Exegetical Proposition
Exegetical purpose
Theological Outline
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Theological Proposition
Theological Purpose
Bringing all Scripture to bear
Other Info.
Homiletical Outline
Introduction:
Homiletical Proposition
Exposition
Conclusion
